Managing HRM Responsibilities And Workplace Stress In Schools Essay.

Task 1: Scope and Responsibilities of the HRM with respect to the case study

Task 1

A. Discuss the employers' obligations and liabilities in respect to Alex's ability to perform her job. You should make reference to health and safety legislation?

Task 2

A. As a school business manager (SBM - responsible for premises management, plays a role in recruitment and manages the non - teaching staff) for the school you have to deal with the immediate issue of Alex and also how best to avoid future issues?

B. Identify and evaluate HRM best practice strategies for managing alcohol and stress in the school. You should make reference to both form?

The most important and valuable asset of an organization is the human resource management. The task of the HRM is very dynamic and challenging. It is important to understand give importance to the various human resource policies and activities within the organization for an efficient human resource management (Catano et al. 2010). The tasks of the HRM are attracting, recruiting, managing, developing and motivating employees of the organization. HRM deals with different types of managerial practices and personnel policies for influencing the workforce of the organization. In other words, it can be said that all the decisions affecting the work of the organizations are part of the HRM function. Providing a suitable workplace for the employees is an important task of the HRM of the organization. There are certain rules and regulations that have to be maintained by the employees of the organization and the HRM has the responsibility to look after this facts (Connell and Teo, 2010).

In this essay, the case study of Alexanda will be discussed for the better understanding of the responsibilities of the human resource management. She is the cook in a kitchen of a primary school. Once she was a very good employee, but due to the stressful workplace she has become inefficient in her work.

The scope of the human resource management of an organization is the all major activities of the employees from the time of he or she enters in the organization to the time of his or her living. The main activities of the HRM are: job planning, recruitment, selection, training, job evaluation, performance appraisal, welfare, maintaining safety and health, etc. (Krausert, 2013).

The overall aim of the human resource management is to maintain the good quality of the individual and performances of the employees for the success of the business of the organization. There are certain responsibilities of the HRM of a business organization. Strategic human resource management has the primary aim of the development of the organization by developing and allocating human resources for supporting and implementing other strategic plans for achieving the corporate objectives (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). Every manager of the organization has the responsibility of managing the employees. The main task of the managers of the organization is to ensure that they have the proper number of employees needed with the proper knowledge, education and skills. The mangers of the organization are responsible for motivating the employees for getting efficient working from them (Inauen, 2014).

Task 2a: Dealing with the immediate issue and strategy for avoiding future issues

Employees are the capital of the organizations. The HRM of an organization is responsible for giving a protective, enjoyable workplace with less stress. This will increase the loyalty of the employees towards the organization and better production to the business. Maintaining the safety and health at the workplaces is an important task of the HRM. The employees also should maintain certain rule and regulations at their workplaces (Rowley and Jackson, 2010).

Health and safety legislations regarding the occupational environment deal with the legislations for regulating the standard of the workplace for preventing the accidents, injuries and diseases in the workplaces of the organization. This includes the appropriate training for handling dangerous equipment at the workplaces. According to this legislation, employees can refuse to perform some job that may be harmful to his or her health (Robertson, 2015).

In the case study, Alex is a cook in a primary school. The senior employees of the school mentioned her as a very efficient worker. At present, there are certain changes came to Alex, which is affecting her work performances. Her seniors found that she begun to come late in work with the smell of alcohol. This is against the health and safety legislations because cooking in this condition will be harmful to the students of the school who are the most important part of the organization. Drinking alcohol is also harmful for the health of Alex. The managers have the duty of finding the fact and its effect on the performances of Alex. Alex is important to the organization because she is working there for a long time with an effective performance. There must be something wrong with the present working situation of Alex, which is affecting her. The HRM of the school has the responsibility of finding out the possible causes and facts behind the situation. It has been found that the work place of Alex has become very stressful due the absent of other two employees for their illness. The HRM of the school has to manage the stress and motivate Alex for giving better performance and avoid drinking in the work place. This situation cannot be ignored due to the harmful effect. The management should not take any strict act against Alex as she was a very good employee of the school, and there are some problems regarding the working environment of her. The responsibility of the HRM of the school is to take suitable steps for removing the stress at the workplace and bring Alex back to her efficient working status.

Task 2b: Strategy for managing stress and alcohol in the school

In this section of the essay, the learner will discuss the process of dealing with the situation of Alex, as the Scholl Business Manager (SBM). SBM plays a vital role behind the process of recruitment and further management of the employees of the school. In order to solve this issue, some instructions will be given to the hr manager of the school for taking care about the situation. The hr manger should investigate the facts about the case scenario. The viewpoint of Alex about the workplace should be taken into consideration (Meijerink, Bondarouk and Lepak, 2015). In this purpose, the management has to ask her if there is any problem regarding her working. It has been found that her other two employees are not coming for work due to their long time illness. Therefore, all the responsibilities of the two employees and her own have to be taken by her. It is very stressful, and this could be the major issue behind the wrong condition. It is quite impossible to remove all the stresses from the workplace, but it can be decreased to a tolerable level. Other two employees will not come for a long period; in this situation other two part-time employees will be recruited for helping Alex.

The learner will also talk to her, for understanding what is wrong with her. She should be motivated by the senior employees for giving effective work. The harmful facts of alcohol consumption have to be discussed with her. Different motivational strategies should be used for motivating her. Some facilities that can help her in the workplace should be supplied to her by the management of the school. The management should observe all the sections of the school and employees who are working in various sections. Meeting should be held with the employees in a periodic manner for understanding the problems. After identification of the problems, the management has to take effective steps for solving those. Stress cannot be totally removed from the work places. Stress management strategy should be adopted by the management for avoiding future issues like this.

Stress is the mental, physical, or emotional responses of someone to some activities that are the cause of mental or physical tension. In other words, stress can be defined as a self-developed mental pain. When someone expects more than the achievement from his or her work when he or she thought that the work is beyond of his or her capability, then a mental illness occurs. This mental illness is called stress at the workplace (Quick, 2013).

At present, the workplaces of the business organizations are more stressful due the high load of work. In order to manage the stress in the workplace of the school, the employers should understand the various facts of the work place stresses (Chojnacka and Witkowski, 2012). People react in various ways against their stresses. Some of them get physically ill due to the workplace stresses. Being insomniac, having high blood pressure, having headache, being alcoholic are the most common outcome of the stress. Insecurity, incapability, wrong perception, angry management, failures, mistakes are the common causes of the work place stresses (Pak and Chung, 2013).

As stated by (Mejía and McCarthy, 2010) there are certain ways of avoiding the stresses at the work places:

•    The employers have to make sure that the employee ahs the capability of taking the responsibility of the job position before recruitment.

•    The employee also has to be sure about his or her own ability to do work.

•    Proper training should be given to the employees.

•    Proper planning is needed for doing efficient work in within a specified time.

•    The management should not be very much rough to the employees.

When an employee gets criticized by the seniors, he or she should not react at that time with a denying manner. Instead of protesting, the employee should listen to the senior carefully for understanding what the actual responsibility of the job. In order to avoid stress, the employee should take the criticism as a lesson of learning not in any other wrong perception (Thompson, 2011).

Being an alcoholic is the outcome of having so much mental and physical stresses. The management has to develop a stress management section in the HRM of the organization. This section will help the employees to work in a suitable environment with less stress. Working in a happy mood and having colleagues as friends is a key concept of having less stress. Therefore, the management of the organization should develop the work environment like this to avoid high stresses in their employees (Homberg and Heine, 2014). The management should not give too much-working pressure to the employees. Of course, there are some needs of giving pressure for the high production but the pressure should be limited. All the employees have to enjoy their works and workplaces (Kaspereen, 2012).

The above-discussed methods are the formal way of managing the stresses of the workplaces. In order to manage the situations like the case study, the management of the school have to develop their stress management system by considering these issues.

Stress management and providing enjoyable working environment is not the only task of the HRM. The HRM of the organization must have to develop certain rules and regulations for the employees of the school. Alcohol drinking at the workplace or coming to work in a drunken state have to be strictly prohibited by the management of the school. After developing an environment with fewer stresses, the management should be ready to take legal steps against the alcohol consumption at the workplace (S. Schuler, 2013).

The managers should talk individually in case of finding any of the employees in drunken condition at the workplaces. In case of drinking at the school or coming in a drunken condition, the employees should be warned strictly for not to do that again. Whenever this type of issue happens more than one time, then the management should take legal steps against that employee.

Conclusion:

The HRM of any business organization has the responsibility of managing the employees in a strategic way. The behaviour of the employees and their efficiency in working get affected by the workplace stresses. In order to manage the stresses at the workplaces, the management of the business organizations has to take some serious steps for manage the workplace stresses in their employees. In this essay the case study if Alex is considered to discuss the fact who was a good cooker at a school but due the stress of the workplace she used to get drunk and come late to work. Responsibilities of the HRM of the school respect to this situation, the necessary steps to handle this situation are discussed in this essay. A strategic way of managing the workplace stress and alcohol at school has been given in the last section of the essay.

References

Books

Chojnacka, M. and Witkowski, K. (2012). Determinants of stress in the company perfecting quality. Management, 16(1).

Connell, J. and Teo, S. (2010). Strategic HRM. Prahran, Vic: Tilde University Press.

Homberg, D. and Heine, D. (2014). Motivation in public sector organizations – introduction to the special issue. Evidence-based HRM, 2(1).

Meijerink, J., Bondarouk, T. and Lepak, D. (2015). Employees as Active Consumers of HRM: Linking Employees’ HRM Competences with Their Perceptions of HRM Service Value. Human Resource Management, p.n/a-n/a.

Journals

Catano, V., Francis, L., Haines, T., Kirpalani, H., Shannon, H., Stringer, B. and Lozanzki, L. (2010). Occupational stress in Canadian universities: A national survey. International Journal of Stress Management, 17(3), pp.232-258.

Inauen, E. (2014). How the approval of rules influences motivation. Evidence-based HRM, 2(1), pp.96-113.

Kaspereen, D. (2012). Relaxation intervention for stress reduction among teachers and staff. International Journal of Stress Management, 19(3), pp.238-250.

Krausert, A. (2013). HRM Systems for Knowledge Workers: Differences Among Top Managers, Middle Managers, and Professional Employees. Human Resource Management, 53(1), pp.67-87.

Mejía, O. and McCarthy, C. (2010). Acculturative stress, depression, and anxiety in migrant farmwork college students of Mexican heritage. International Journal of Stress Management, 17(1), pp.1-20.

Pak, J. and Chung, G. (2013). "Top Management Commitment to HRM, Visibilities, and HRM Gap: A Qualitative Approach". Academy of Management Proceedings, 2013(1), pp.15181-15181.

Pilbeam, S. and Corbridge, M. (2010). People resourcing and talent planning. Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Quick, J. (2013). Preventive stress management in organizations. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Robertson, H. (2015). The Health and Safety at Work Act turned 40. Occupational Medicine, 65(3), pp.176-179.

Rowley, C. and Jackson, K. (2010). Human resource management. New York: Routledge.

S. Schuler, R. (2013). Opportunities abound in HRM and innovation. Journal of Chinese Human Resources Management, 4(2), pp.121-127.

Thompson, P. (2011). The trouble with HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(4), pp.355-367.